Re: madness

Ian, In a message dated 98-03-10 20:07:08 EST, you write:

<< I'd love to also, and in beginning, along with Heidegger might we also
remember Deleuze and Guattari?
"As Reich remarks, the astonishing thing is not that some people steal
or that others occaisonally go out on strike, but rather that all those
that are starving do not steal as a regular practice, and all those who are
exploited are not continually out on strike: after centuries of
exploitation, why do people still tolerate being humilated and enslaved, to
such a point, indeed, that they actually want humiliation and slavery not
only for others but for themselves? .. no, the masses were not innocent
dupes; at a certain point, under a certain set of conditions, they wanted
fascism .." (Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari, _Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and
Schizophrenia_, p. 29)
I agree Phil that our century, to future archaeologists, will surely
resemble the universal technic of which Heidegger shuddered and Marinetti
welcomed, but what role I wonder for the masses; all those vehicles of
desire and possible flight? Will any of us be able to deny complicity?

_______________________________________________________
Ian Robert Douglas, >>


And one of those in complicity is me. Despite my deep and, I belive, well
founded concerns about the turn to naieve simplicity in psychiatry (eg. DSM
IV) I still work within it and follow the rules laid out for a psychiatrist to
be able to make a living. My small acts of courage are to give to my patients
a recounting of the uncertainty I feel rather than the great optimistic
speeches my colleagues deliver. I undo some of the damage others do when I can
(eg. reversing a sloppily made diagnosis of bipolar disorder) and little
things like that. I even take people off medication once in a while.
But that doesn't satisfy the burning revolutionary fever in me. And that
brings me to a comment on your comments. Heidegger always acknowledged the
power of Das Man and he viewed falling as a normal existential structure of
Dasein. The they IS powerful and pulls individuals along as it also
continually reshapes them. I think there is little doubt that we are all held
by the power of our current facist dictator, materialism, and its chief
wizard, "scientism". The unifying geist of it all? Sadly to say, its
advertising. But......
There is such a thing as revolutions. Heidegger speaks of a new
beginnings. I see a trend emerging in our world with a revitalization of
religion, New Age spirituality, holistic medicine (all admittedly banalized
and commodified) that tells me that humans want more than they are getting. I
think a "wholistic" revolution might be growing in reponse to the felt (but
not generally conceptually grasped) impact of the age of gestell.
That is my optimistic view. On this list I saw Foucault percieved as a
pessimist with a dark view of the world. Heidegger's conception of the
technological era of Being needing to fully play itself out (if we survive)
while we stand idly by hoping for a new call from Being is equally dark. But
we need these dark voices. They are wake-up calls.
Out of the darkness grows the saving power Heidegger tells us. And it is
in dialogs with people on these lists and in other venues that the voice of
that saving power is speaking. My plan of attack is to bite the hand that
feeds me by going after psychiatry itself. Do you have any thoughts about
psychiatrty and its place in the big picture? I see it at the front of the
gestell line, waiting in the wings with more and more drugs and gadgets on the
way to serve those who like happy, contented citizens...even if we have to
drug them all to do it.


Yours,

Phil S.

ps. I'll be out of town for 4 or 5 days. Will rejoin you then.

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